San Francisco Bay Area milk sample has highest amount of Cesium-137 since last June — Almost double EPA’s maximum contaminant level

4/9/2012 (5:45pm): Three recent milk test results have been posted on the milk sample page with “best by” dates of 3/12, 4/9, and 4/16. Very low levels of Cs-134 and Cs-137 were detected in the samples — the amounts are so small that it would require drinking over tens of thousands of liters of milk to receive the small dose that one receives from a cross-country airplane flight. These isotopes can still be detected in milk because they have long half-lives (2 years and 30 years, respectively) and therefore trace amounts will remain in the grass and hay that the cows feed on.

Best Buy Date of 04/09/2012:

Cs-134 @ 0.068 Bq/L

Cs-137 @ 0.141 Bq/L

Total Cs = 0.209 Bq/L or 5.67 pCi/L (27.1 picocuries = 1 becquerel)

Best Buy Date of 04/16/2012:

Cs-134 @ 0.073 Bq/L

Cs-137 @ 0.079 Bq/L

Total Cs = 0.152 Bq/L or 4.12 pCi/L

The EPA Maximum Contaminant Level for radioactive cesium in milk is 3 picocuries/L:

“EPA lumps these gamma and beta emitters together under one collective MCL [Maximum Contaminant Level], so if you’re seeing cesium-137 in your milk or water, the MCL is 3.0 picocuries per liter; if you’re seeing iodine-131, the MCL is 3.0; if you’re seeing cesium-137 and iodine-131, the MCL is still 3.0.” -Forbes.com

These are the highest cesium-137 levels detected by UCB since last June (Far right column is Cs-137)

What I want to know is: why is the EPA maximum allowable amount a "moving target" and why does it seem to change at any given time? That's assuming the "MDA" is what the EPA is saying is the maximum allowable at any given time.

Well, we've been over the maximum allowable for a really long time and NOTHING has been done.

Hi Majia, the article states, "potassium (K) strongly inhibits Cs (Cesium) uptake." That's probably one of the reasons Zeolite is so effective in protecting plants against Cesium uptake. It occurs naturally in the Death Valley area, and parts of Nevada.

The potassium is around 10% or less. There is more aluminum. 'Don't know if that's a concern in terms of absorption or uptake by plants. It's advertised as safe for composting and gardening. Some dairy farmers are now feeding zeolite & /or clays & sodium tetraborate for protection against radiation. Just an "FYI" & would like to study more, myself.

clinoptilolite zeolite From Wikipedia

Clinoptilolite is a natural zeolite comprising a microporous arrangement of silica & alumina tetrahedra. It has the complex formula: (Na,K,Ca)2-3Al3(Al,Si)2Si13O36·12(H2O) …. It commonly occurs as a devitrification product of volcanic glass shards in tuff & as vesicle fillings in basalts, andesites and rhyolites. It was described in 1969 from an occurrence in Owl Canyon, San Bernardino County, California.

Use of clinoptilolite in industry and academia focuses on its ion exchange properties having a strong exchange affinity for ammonia (NH4+) …. It is also used as fertiliser, & sold as a deodorizer in the form of pebble-sized chunks contained in a mesh bag.

Research is generally focussed around the shores of the Aegean Sea due to the abundance of natural clinoptilolite in easily accessible surface deposits.

I'm not very familiar with Calcium use by plants. Calcium is another one of the minerals the body needs, and it uptakes a radioactive isotope (if present) instead. I can't remember offhand whether it's plutonium or uranium which interferes with calcium uptake. The body will take up the radioisotope if present, mistakenly, instead of calcium. (It could be another radioisotope, but I don't have reference materials in front of me.)

Am growing all my veggies under plastic/in the greenhouse as suggested by Anne about a year ago. 'Problem is, I live where it gets really hot in the summertime, and I don't know how my plants will fare under plastic. Am trying to find a local grower of veggies who harvests from a greenhouse — and doesn't use too many chemicals. Not easy to find ….

If you don't get enough calcium, then you are more likely to uptake Strontium 90. Of course, I do not recommend dairy products as a way to get calcium.

Strontium
"….Strontium-90 is chemically similar to calcium, and tends to deposit in bone and blood-forming tissue (bone marrow). Thus, strontium-90 is referred to as a "bone seeker." Internal exposure to Sr-90 is linked to bone cancer, cancer of the soft tissue near the bone, and leukemia.
"Risk of cancer increases with increased exposure to Sr-90. The risk depends on the concentration of Sr-90 in the environment, and on the exposure conditions…."http://epa.gov/rpdweb00/radionuclides/strontium.html

I am lucky that I have a large shade tree west of my greenhouses and starting about 1 p.m. it starts casting shade on them.

And you can grow hot season vegetables such as squash, corn, beans, pumpkins, melons, peppers, tomatoes. And grow cooler vegetables in the cooler months such as lettuce, collards, peas, carrots, beets, etc.

I am posting on the forum on how to combat radiation some videos I looked at today>

No one seems to measure it nowadays, but wherever cesium is, strontium is also…its mimic of calcium sends it right to bones and teeth…it preoccupied the scientists as the biggest threat to life on earth…check out the Rand Project Sunshine 1953…by '62 it pursuaded Kennedy into sIgning the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty because of Sr90 in American baby teeth and screaming mad mothers

I know I know Test "Ban" was the biggest lie ever…

until the Banana (K40)

and cross country airplane flights which are very relevant since the average Joe like me does this all the time!!

Let's treat our garden soil, keep up with the clay, and scream our heads off about how they LIE

The ideal calcium/magnesium ratio is as Chris describes, unless there is good reason to alter it.

Taking magnesium all by itself is ok short term, just like calcium.. But again, any single mineral taken for long periods tends to unbalance the body.

Same goes for zinc… It will cause inflammations if taken to excess for too long. That is why companies stopped using zinc cream to hold dentures in; it caused health problems after being taken long term.

Who's in charge? The FDA is the agency which CONTROLS the SALE of milk. Until the FDA says no more sales, then many will continue to buy it and drink it. (especially children)

The FDA's levels are far different from the levels suggested by the EPA. How and why they are different is a 'study' unto itself. Let's just say it's confusing on purpose and take that for what it is.

How would they really know anyway?
Testing should be being diligently performed nation wide, but it's not. If a lack of testing or insufficient testing is done then we'll never know is probably what they are thinking. I am pretty sure that has been and will continue to be their strategy.

So what are we supposed to do?
I say… Avoid MILK, it won't kill ya!!! …or will it?

The FDA model for exposure is much different than that of the EPA. The FDA assumes exposures over long periods of time are cumulatively harmful. The EPA uses a model with a shorter timeframe.

See the EPA website for a discussion of the PAG's (protective action guidelines). If you read the two pdf's there, you'll note the health physics folks have published guidelines for implementing the PAG's. This includes the DoE, and labs like Los Alamos National Labs. Since their exposure model predicts little harm from what they term "low level exposure" and they disregard the harm caused by internal emitters, it can be assumed they see no reason to implement the PAG's except in dire cases.

I have deduced the answer to the question above. It is never clearly stated, but if you see who's making recommendations on implementing the PAG's, the answer becomes very obvious. Just use a little deductive logic and it's as plain as can be.

BTW, I makes me #$@!%!$#%!$ to see the DoE and pro-nuclear people making an end run around environmental policy. But people like Leuren Moret have always said the EPA is just the DoE's little lap dog. So in a way it's not surprising.

Not to worry…Back in the early 1950s, when I was in elementary school in a small rural dairy farm town in upstate NY, the War Department (we really need to change the name back to reflect its purpose) in cooperation with a major university I've been told was the U of Rochester, fed us a half pint of radioactive milk every morning under a "special government program" to see what would happen to us. That was the first time in my life to be a government guinea pig of the DoD. We "baby boomers" have been the target of other government death programs, Vietnam in particular, ever since. As the various cancers and leukemia take 10 years to develop, or more, we have no idea which of us got sick from the experiments or who died. Every kid drank it as our teacher gave it to us at our desk and watched to see we drank it all.

There was actually a law passed by Congress in the 1950's or 1960's (I think) that allowed atmospheric weapons testing on people of the United States. I have a citation of the statute buried somewhere in my archives of stuff. Supposedly it was repealed, but did it ever really stop? If we can have barium, aluminum, and titanium dumped on us under the DoE's guise of "global warming study" isn't that tatamount to continuing to use us as human guinea pigs?

See "Owning the Weather in 2025" and DoE documents online, discussing weather modification and global warming studies. Ionization of the atmosphere is being done and they're calling it "global warming studies."

It seems that was a dangerous time to be a kid…..and still is. We humans have been running on blissful ignorance for a long time….probably our whole history.

In the 50's:
Nuclear tests by the truck load.
I recall shoe stores having X ray machines and they would x ray your feet whenever Mom would take you in there….didn't even matter if you were buying shoes….it was just a crazy sales gimmick.
If I had a cavity filled by the family dentist, he would give me a puddle of mercury in a little test tube like jar with a cap on it to take home…to PLAY with! Used to shine up dimes, roll it around on saucers, all kinds of weird shit.

Also, in case you haven't seen this link on other posts, here is a new anti nuke song written by our own Jebus. It is called "Nuclear Hour".

Excellent, PoorDaddy and Jebus! Thanks for sharing this wonderful music video. The lyrics are perfect and I love your singing style, PoorDaddy, in the tradition of the greatest American folk songsters. Keep 'em coming! May your video go viral…

I am so sorry Fred,….let me tell you why.
My family owned and operated SAM- 'Sterling Amherst Milk', in upstate New York for many generations. I pray, yet fear that may be the very 'dairy' from which you speak. The world is small,…..and getting smaller!

If it is my family's dairy,….let me assure you that it, and they, fell into ruin! But,….that story is for another day.

No words can express how I, (we) feel when hearing these REAL-LIFE stories of NUCLEAR HORROR!

Just to clarify, the list is amazing. They only discuss cumulative dose, and conveniently break out the total so that only accumulation in separate organs (not the whole body) is considered. Those are atomic numbers for each element appearing in the right hand column, BTW (not allowable releases). They didn't make it too clear what those numbers were when they designed the chart.

Wow, SJ and Fred. This gives me shivers…If there was a connection, perhaps your family was not aware of the radiation in their milk, but instead, the gvt. secretly was aware from having tested it for fallout coming from above-ground atomic testing or releases from a local NPP? So perhaps they decided to run the "experiment," knowing the milk was contaminated anyway?

It would be extra evil if they purposefully ADDED the radiation in it for the experiment. May God help us all. That is NOT the kind of world I want to raise my child in. The evilness is beyond comprehension. Have we lost our minds???

That was my 'creepy' take too! Made me re-live the feelings that I was dropped by a stork at the wrong address! That was my Mum's side,…Weckerle,…very German,…..(no put-down intended,…just a statement of RIGIDITY (I grew up with). Speaking personally.
This made me think for a second,…that maybe they were reptilian aliens POSING as my parents,….pretending to be 'loving parents',…..all the while I, (we) were their test subjects!

Think I've gone over the FALLS this time! OH Lord,….I just don't know a bloody thing for sure anymore!

Wow, you have a great imagination…that would make a creepy sci-fi/mystery novel, eh? Maybe you should start writing that novel? I can see it now, "Coming to a big screen near you: StillJill's Aliens at Home" ;-D LOL

TheBigPicture, perhaps some day…justice will be served. I remember, however, America and Japan signing an agreement immediately after 3/11 limiting each others' liability in lawsuits stemming from radiation contamination caused by one country upon another.

Such lawsuits will take years to develop, I'm guessing, as compiling all the necessary evidence will take time and resources…and the will of a determined people.

Yes, they need to continue to speak up….as well as those German scientists who last May published a study which, for the first time, linked radiation fallout exposure from Chernobyl directly to the Chernobyl children who got thyroid cancer from the exposure. Did you see that study? They found a "genetic radiation fingerprint" which proved their exposure was from Chernobyl radiation.

As you can see, this is just the tip of the iceberg and a very promising study, as there are bound to be many more such studies which can prove illnesses which result from exposure to Fukushima fallout, or even exposure from local NPPs…

And boy, when these new studies start popping up, then the lid will be blown off this thing big time (no pun intended) and ACCOUNTABILITY will finally start happening…

"This breakthrough is the first time since the reactor accident in 1986 that scientists have been able to discriminate between the cancers caused by the radioactive contamination and those that arise naturally. Prof. Zitzelsberger ascribes the success of this study to the careful collection, documentation and storage of thyroid cancers from the Chernobyl region in the Chernobyl Tissue Bank. He noted that this unique collection of materials made it possible for the team to compare for the first time tumours from children of the same age and regional background.

"The availability of the genetic marker, according to Prof. Zitzelsberger, will improve both the clinical diagnosis of thyroid cancer and our understanding of how radioactive iodine causes the disease to develop.

"In future studies funded by EURATOM in the project 'EpiRadBio' the group will extend the study to determine if the genetic fingerprint is able to indicate the level of radiation exposure that is required to cause the cancer."

IT IS CONTINUOUS AND THE FIGURES IF YOUR DRINKING GO TO THYROID AND BABIES TOO & IN THEIR FOODS SO YOU ARE BASICALLY KILLING YOUR SELVES RADIATION HAS BEEN TAUGHT IT IS ACCEPTABLE BY PEOPLE WHO LOVE RADIATION ONLY. ITS ALL BAD FOR YOU PERIOD

The thinking of leaders, i believe, is this – the perpetuation of the government and the economy "as-is" will always be more important than the citizenry. Cut off the limb to save the head type of thing. It is a thinking error, of course. A mindset so narrow and dark and circular that it perpetuates and creates its own worse case scenario outcomes.

The cesium is there now, and being measured, and increasing with every measurement. So, there's no reason to wait for anything. The seafood and dairy industries are affected, and restaurants too …the list goes on. So, the way to stop this is to get busy now. This will happen.

Firstly all testing is nothing more than a spot check. Which means a lot of product can get through that is not checked. As other people here have pointed out the safety levels are a moving target.

Example:

They first release an article like this one. I am using the EU as an example here.

Extract from article link below:

“EU boosts food import controls after Japanese nuclear disaster. The European Union is to step up controls on food imports from Japan in the wake of the nuclear accident at Fukushima – but stressed there was no evidence that consumers in the region were at risk from radiation-contaminated food.

The EU ruling insists that all products from these prefectures are tested before leaving Japan and said they will be subject to random testing in the bloc. Japanese authorities will have to provide a declaration confirming products do not contain radioactive elements – called radionuclides – that exceed EU maximum levels. The Commission highlighted radionuclides iodine-131, caesium-134 and caesium-137."

This article "EU boosts food import controls after Japanese nuclear disaster" is a clever deception because they then proceed to quietly raise the EU maximum safety levels by 20x for caesium-134 and caesium-137. Governments worldwide have used this same tactic.

Weird, was just looking at this day before yesterday, thinking.. hmm where is the test..

So, while pouring over these numbers, at length.. I noticed something odd, and wonder if anyone could explain it..

when you look at the "less than MDA" that is grayed out.. why does the number change so much? shouldn't the least mda of 1.24 stay constant? and when the amount of what is measured goes up..1.24 to 1.66 etc.. does anybody else think dilution? are they increasing the amount measured by adding filtered water? does anyone else notice a correlation of highest measurements and larger volume being measured?

..also, didn't UCB just admit to screwing some stuff up with their measurements? Anybody remember the exact details?

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